Respect Michelle Obama’s Work As First Lady

It’s not that First Lady Michelle Obama is above criticism. I’ve expressed my critical thoughts about remarks made by Mrs. Obama when they veered toward the political, like last year when she declared that church is “absolutely” a place to discuss political issues. Even so, more times than not, Michelle Obama’s role is largely apolitical — a fun fact many conveniently glance over whenever they decide to opine over her every waking move and campaign.

That’s why when I read a recent piece from Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, lamenting that “it’s time for First Lady Michelle Obama to raise her game,” I wondered aloud, Just what does he think this is?

Enough with the broccoli and Brussels sprouts — to say nothing about all the attention paid to her arms, hair, derriere, and designer clothes. Where is that intellectually gifted Princeton graduate, the Harvard-educated lawyer and mentor to the man who would become the first African-American president of the United States?

No one criticized Laura Bush for reading to children, so why hammer at Michelle for an anti-obesity program that’s actually showing signs of working?

In any event, Milloy certainly has an idea of how to judge the way she’s been spending her time:

This takes me back to college, when Milloy wrote a controversial columndepicting Howard University students as politically apathetic fried-chicken lusting fools who were only given a rise when then-President George W. Bush visited the campus and interrupted “Soul Food Thursday.”

I see he’s still peddling that same kind of self-loathing jabber disguised as a rallying cry of concern.